Stood In The Rain
by Arisprite
Summary: A rainy training leaves the Knights of Camelot down for the count. Luckily, Merlin is there to mother them all to death. Part 3 in the Physician's Apprentice Series.


**Title: **Stood in the Rain

**Author: **Arisprite

**Wordcount: **2,557

**Summary: **A rainy training leaves the Knights of Camelot down for the count. Luckily, Merlin is there to mother them all to death.

**Warnings: (**General) Wounds, blood, gore, potentially dangerous, and perhaps not thoroughly researched medical practices, tiny bit of swearing. No slash intended, but friendship can look like more from the outside. You're free to take my words however you like. (This Part) No warnings.

**Disclaimer: **Obviously I am not the owner of BBC or Shine. I'm a college student! Song lyrics and title are from Jewel's 'Foolish Games'.

**Series:** Part 3 of the Physician's Apprentice Series (formerly titled Five Times Merlin Had To Heal Someone Else, and One Time He Had To Heal Himself). Merlin has gotten tired of never knowing what to do in emergencies, and heaven knows his healing magic is unreliable at best. So he begins to study medicine under Gaius, just in case.

**A/N:** Holy crap, did you see last night's episode! "Acting Physician Merlin"! I've never grinned so much. This story was written to see that very thing, and now Merlin doctoring is canon! I feel so validated.

**Thank You:** To my sister, **Kate-7h, **who is awesome, and is my unofficial beta in all things Merlin. I owe you a treat!

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><p><em>You took your coat off and stood in the rain. <em>

_You were always crazy like that._

* * *

><p>It would be fair to say that it all started with Arthur. He was, after all, the one who forced them all to train in the pouring rain. A completely soaked and miserable bunch of knights, along with one less soaked, but no less miserable servant re-entered the castle that afternoon, eager to head off to their respective fireplaces.<p>

"I can't believe you had us out there that long, Arthur." Merlin complained. "It was pouring!"

Arthur glared at him, looking less than impressive from under his dripping fringe. Gwaine slapped Merlin's back, his hand making a squelching noise against Merlin's coat.

"It's alright, Merlin. The princess here just wants to make sure we can defeat any mermaids that attack the castle."

Merlin snorted, and Elyan out and out laughed; he hated to admit it, but he sometimes did appreciate Gwaine's wit. Arthur grumbled.

Suddenly, a noise made them all pause in their journey through the castle doors. They looked round, and saw Percival holding a hand to his face.

"Alright there, Percival?" Lancelot asked.

Percival sneezed again then rubbed his nose, and nodded. "Yes, I'm fine."

"You could be getting ill. I wouldn't be surprised with how wet we all got." Merlin shot a mock glare at Arthur, before turning to Percival. The knight shook his head.

"I'm alright."

Merlin looked sceptical, for he knew the knightly disposition well. "If it gets any worse, come get me or Gaius."

Percival reluctantly nodded, and Arthur rolled his eyes. "Really, Merlin. You can't go ordering the knights around like that."

"You're the one who made me physician's assistant. If I have medical reason, you all have to listen to me." Merlin grinned, and received a round of groans and laughs.

"Sure, Merlin." Arthur replied.

They made it inside, and separated, each heading to their rooms. Merlin trailed along after Arthur for a while, until the prince turned and looked back at his servant.

"Oh, go dry yourself off, Merlin, you look positively pathetic."

"But your fire's not lit." Merlin said, protesting for show, while inside he was hoping that Gaius had a fire going already. Arthur waved his hand.

"I can light a fire myself, you know."

Merlin smiled cheekily. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yes! Now, go! Before I change my mind."

Merlin scampered off with a shouted back "Thanks!" trailing after him.

Gaius chambers were nicely lit, and warm, and Merlin made a beeline for the fireplace, wherein was a roaring flame. He gave a shudder of pleasure, and huddled in front with a sigh.

"Ah ah, Merlin. Go get dried off first." Gaius voice came from behind him; Merlin had been so eager to get to the warmth of the flames he'd not even registered his guardian in the room. He turned to see the infamous eyebrow raised at him.

"Alright, alright." Merlin groaned. And waited, not wanting to leave the heat.

"The fire will still be there when you get back." Gaius said. "Now get!"

Sighing, Merlin bolted from the circle of warmth by the fireplace, and ran up to his cold bedroom. Some relatively clean clothes were piled near the door, and it was these that he dragged on, trying to spend as little time with goose pimply skin exposed to the chilly air as possible.

He rushed back downstairs, and plopped down in front of the fire again in record time. Merlin smiled happily, until a rough fabric _something_ came down over his eyes and started rubbing his head vigorously.

"Ack, Gaius! What are you doing?"

Gaius scrubbed at his head, with what Merlin now recognized was a towel, for a few more minutes before tossing it into his lap.

"All warm and dry?" The older man asked. Merlin nodded, his eyes closing in bliss.

"Mmhhhmm..."

"Good, than you can do some chores for me before Arthur needs you."

Merlin slumped down in his seat, and groaned.

By the time Merlin's hands were warm and raw from scrubbing Gaius' empty jars and vials, it was time to go see to Arthur. Merlin bemoaned his life on the way there, half jogging to make it to Arthur's room without being late and being accused of doddling. He didn't have time to doddle; Gaius made sure of that!

Then coughing from around the corner made him pause. There was something about the coughing that sounded familiar. Sure enough, it was Sir Percival who was half bent over with a hand to his mouth, looking pained and embarrassed.

"Percival, are you alright?" Merlin asked, coming closer. Percival straightened up, and gave Merlin a half smile.

"I'm fine."

"I can see that." Merlin said, raising an eyebrow in a fair approximation of Gaius. Percival internally groaned. "How long have you not been feeling well?"

Breathing out through his nose, Percival answered. "Since training this afternoon..."

Merlin nodded. He'd expected that. "Let me get you some tea. I'm sure Gaius has something."

It didn't take much for Percival to give in, and he nodded.

"Shall I bring it to your rooms after I finish with Arthur?"

"That's fine. Thanks," Percival murmured. Merlin smiled, and started to run off.

"My pleasure!"

He entered Arthur's rooms, wincing in anticipation of a lecture, but none was forthcoming. In fact, Arthur was strangely silent the whole evening, and when Merlin bade him goodnight, early in the evening, Arthur was already preparing to go to sleep. Merlin resolved to keep an eye on him, along with Percival. He wouldn't be surprised if the prince was getting ill as well.

Merlin swung by Gaius' chambers to pick up a soothing tea, and then knocked at Percival's chambers, packet in hand. Percival answered the door, already in a night shirt. He gratefully took the packet, and bade him good night as well.

Alone strangely early in the evening, Merlin went to his rooms to get a little reading done. Making sure his door was firmly closed, he flipped through his magic book, looking for something he'd missed or not studied yet. He'd had only the single book for four years, and Merlin was pretty sure he'd memorized every spell in it. If he were braver, he would dare take one of the books from the hidden section of the library, but he was quite frankly, scared of Geoffrey. So, Merlin amused himself with his old book, and made up spells (though he had to be careful with those; one time he'd nearly singed off his eyebrows, and caught his bed clothes afire when something went wrong. Gaius wasn't pleased.).

Merlin was rereading the section on animal transformation, and resolved to try that one of these days, when sounds floated up from downstairs. Merlin quickly stuffed the book under his pillow, and padded over to the door, his socked feet making no noise on the hard wood.

Downstairs, a man was coughing. It turned out to be Gwaine.

"You're getting ill too?" Merlin asked, coming down the staircase.

"Too?" Gwaine asked. "Who else is sick?"

"Percival, and I think Arthur's getting it. He was acting strange." Merlin said.

"He always acts strange." Gwaine snorted, which then turned into another cough.

"Enough talking, you two. Merlin, don't encourage him." Gaius said, turning from his table, holding a flask. "Here, this will help you sleep through the night." Gwaine took it, and winced at the smell. Merlin knew it was a tincture of lemon, onions and honey; wonderful for the throat, but tasted terrible.

"Bottom's up, eh Merlin? Never let it be said I refused a drink." Gwaine tilted his head back, and swallowed quickly, accepting the glass of water Gaius handed him after in relief.

"Ugh, how do people drink that stuff?" He rubbed the back of his hand against his mouth, while Merlin laughed.

The next morning, two knights didn't show up for training. Arthur sent Merlin to see where Elyan and Lancelot had gotten to. Merlin found Elyan still asleep, breathing heavily through his mouth. Merlin left him where he was, with a note to go to Gaius when he woke.

Lancelot was awake, and dizzily trying to get into his armour.

"Lancelot, what are you doing?" Merlin said when he entered.

"I'm late..." Lancelot muffled a cough in his hand, and grabbed his mail. Merlin stopped him, steering him back to the edge of his bed.

"You're ill." Merlin said, unbuckling Lancelot's belt, and pushing him under the covers, still wearing his padded under tunic. Lancelot shook his head, protesting.

"I have to go to training."

"Arthur's excused you, don't worry."Not technically true, but Merlin would make sure it was after this. Finally, Lancelot stopped resisting, and Merlin pulled the bed clothes up to his chin.

"Merlin? Don't you know any healing spells?" Lancelot's voice was a whisper, but still Merlin looked around in worry. Then he shook his head.

"Sorry, Lancelot. This needs to run its course naturally. Plus, I'm rubbish at healing spells."

Lancelot groaned and pulled the pillows over his head, leaving Merlin chuckling as he left.

Arthur was put out to find that four of his knights were out of commission with coughs and colds. Merlin received a glare when he pointed out that they probably wouldn't have gotten sick, had they not all been soaked yesterday.

"_Thank_ you, Merlin."

They were interrupted by a muffled noise from behind them. Leon, who was the only knight at practice, held his hand over his mouth, much as Percival had the day before. Another involuntary cough sounded from behind his hand, and Arthur threw up his hands in exasperation.

"Go, on. To bed with you, Leon. _Merlin_ will look after everyone, won't you, Merlin?"

Merlin rolled his eyes, but nodded to Leon. "Let me know if you want something for the cough."

"Sorry, sire." Leon said, clearing his throat again.

"Oh, get on." Arthur stabbed his sword into the ground, and stalked off, leaving Leon and Merlin looking after him.

"You'd better do as he says. From the looks of the others, this cold is a nasty one, and I think Arthur's starting to get it."

Leon gave him a look of pure sympathy, and gripped his shoulder. "Good luck then."

Merlin half smiled, confusion on his face. "Why do I need luck?"

Leon grimaced, and coughed again before answering. "Because, Arthur is notoriously terrible when he's ill. We're lucky he doesn't get sick often, but I remember a few awful times during his younger years, before you came here."

With those foreboding words, Leon stumbled off to bed, leaving Merlin staring after him, nonplussed.

With all of the knights down for the count, Merlin was placed with the duty of, not only running various cough medicines to those who needed it, but with keeping Arthur busy. This meant, that in between jogging between each room (bestowing remedies, smiles, and good cheer, to the best of his abilities) he was knocked about on the training field and the target for much ire and thrown goblets.

Arthur must be getting sick, for he was in a monstrous bad mood, and Merlin found himself keeping silent and out of the way, just to avoid his anger. And this was all before lunch!

At midday, Merlin brought the prince his usual platter of breads, cheeses, meats and a selection of vegetables, and then watched as the bounteous food was merely picked at. He did, however, refill the water goblet twice.

And now, through the afternoon, Arthur kept clearing his throat, over and over. Enough.

"Arthur, you are ill." Merlin said with exasperation. Arthur looked up from his papers, bleary eyed and red faced from holding in coughs.

"Am not." Arthur grunted, taking another sip of water, and trying to hide his wince as even the cool liquid burned his throat. Merlin had seen enough of the others who were ill to recognize the symptoms.

Merlin barely hid his rolling eyes. "You've gotten what the other knights have."

"No I," –_cough—"_haven't."

"You just coughed."

"No, I did not." Arthur's voice was strained, and Merlin was losing his patience at Arthur's childishness. Leon was right!

Merlin huffed, and decided to just wait it out. Arthur's face grew redder as he held his breath. There was a few moments of silence, until a burst of loud, painful sounding coughs erupted from the prince. Merlin sighed, and patted Arthur's back until they abated.

"Merlin," Arthur said once they stopped, voice rough.

"Yes, sire?" Merlin said.

"I'm ill."

"Yes, sire." Merlin hid a smile, and went to prepare Arthur's bed.

In the end, each and every one of the Knights of the Round Table became ill, leaving Merlin to run tonics to them, and attempt to keep them entertained and nourished as Gaius ordered him to. Some, like Leon, Lancelot, and Elyan listened to his advice with common sense, and alacrity.

Gwaine was a complete child when ill, as whiny as a two year old, which tried Merlin's patience, but was also slightly endearing.  
>And Arthur, Arthur was a bear. Grumpy, violent and upset, Merlin made sure to drop off the tonics and retreat with haste.<p>

Then, after a week of fetching meals, and tea and tonics, of carrying extra blankets from storage to ease the knights chills, and of in general, mothering all of them to death; the men were all back on their feet: to Merlin's eternal relief.

"I must admit, I made a good choice to let you study with Gaius." Said Arthur, clapping him on the back on every one's first day back out at training. "You didn't do a terrible job this last week. No one's dead in any case."

Merlin quirked a smile and the knights laughed, saying their thanks, and patting him on the back in that friendly, but slightly painful way.

Greetings and thanks done, the knights turned as a group, eager to clash their swords together, and be active after a week of bed, but a sudden noise turned them back.

"ACHHOOO!"

Startled, they looked around, to see Merlin sheepishly holding a hand to his rebellious nose.


End file.
